Hi All,



I would like to add the thanks of Team WNANF (We Need A Name Fast) to  

the others who have chimed in about the Newport News tournament.  We  

are a rookie team, and had a few surprises in how things were done,  

but the scheduling went very smoothly, the rooms were easy to find and  

centrally located, and folks were gracious and professional.  Well done!



I'll pass along the things that surprised us, in the hope it can help  

others.  I hope I'm not spilling any secrets.



One of the things our team got feedback on the sheets as a weakness  

was "No introductions to judges." Although our team handed the judge  

the Team Information sheet, no one told us that it was standard  

procedure to introduce themselves as well.  Talking to an experienced  

coach friend, he said they forgot to tell this year's team to do that,  

even though they had remembered to tell their previous teams.



The team was also surprised in the robot judging to be asked to run  

the robot while they answered questions.  Even though this is a middle  

school team, several members are shy, and had a hard time listening to  

and coming up with coherent answers to the judges' questions while  

they were also trying to run the robot - definitely something we need  

to practice.



After reading the comments here last week (at 10:30 p.m. the night  

before our tournament) about needing to bring a "code book" with  

photos of the robot with all the attachments and printouts of the  

programs, I was in a panic, particularly since my printer was out of  

ink.  We decided to just take our robot and laptop to show the  

programs.  Although bringing our robot to the robot judging may seem  

obvious, it wasn't to this rookie coach, particularly after reading  

about needing to bring photos.  Finally, even though some team members  

said, "We can show you in our program what we did," the judges didn't  

want to look at their programs at all.  (Glad I didn't go on a  

midnight expedition for printer ink!)



As a final suggestion, I would have liked to have the team see the  

other teams' presentations, in order get ideas on what worked and what  

didn't.  This is allowed (with students as young as 3rd grade) in  

Odyssey of the Mind, and the kids learn a lot from each other.  The  

format is very much the same - using classrooms for the  

presentations.  When the room is full, that's it, so teams would have  

to be judicious about sending only a couple of members to not take up  

too much space.



Perhaps a "What to Expect" few paragraphs would be helpful, either  

posted on the VA/DC website or e-mailed to the coaches when they  

register for a tournament.  This should help new coaches, and also  

serve as a checklist for the experienced coaches.  To put everything  

in perspective, none of these things hurt us much, as we did qualify  

for State, but it was stressful for the team members.  Even so, they  

had a great time.  Thanks again!



Linda Bangert

Coach for Team WNANF

Poquoson Middle School



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